Fishing
by Ash888
Summary: The first in a series of fun little one-shots which happen several years before the events of the show. I intend to incorporate these into my longer fic (The Faceless Wolf) at some point as memories or dreams, but I thought they would make a series of fun shorts too. A six year old Arya tags along on fishing trip with her brothers Robb and Jon.


**~:Fishing:~**

Arya was glad to have finished her needlework lessons for the morning, they were so boring yet Sansa seemed to really enjoy them. That was probably because she was so much better than Arya at it. Arya wasn't too fussed though, she had only been learning for a few weeks. Sansa was always better than her at doing ladylike things but Arya was the better rider and much better at maths.

She walked down the stone steps of the tower holding her doll by its arm in her left hand and stepped out into the yard to see Robb and Jon. She smiled and waved at them before running over to them. "Where are you going? Can I come too?" She asked Jon, looking up at him. She knew that he was more likely to let her tag along than Robb.

Robb looked down at her. "We're going to try and catch some trout, you can't come little sister." Jon smiled at her apologetically.

"Aww, but why not? I can catch a fish too." She continued, hoping he that would change his mind.

"I'm sorry Arya, you're only six, you're not really allowed out of the castle yet." Robb replied hoping that she would listen, which she never did.

Arya frowned before holding Jon's hand tightly with her right hand. "I'll be a good girl I promise." She smiled up sweetly at Robb, hoping that he wouldn't refuse.

Jon looked at Robb and Robb sighed in resignation. "Fine, you can come, but you must stay close and behave or I'll tell mother." Robb said, finally giving in to her.

Arya giggled happily and held Jon's hand as they walked down to the river. _'Maybe I can find some rubies too' _She thought to herself.

"You're walking too fast" She complained after just a few minutes. Arya was small for her age and a lot smaller than her older brothers and struggled to keep up with them. Her legs were short and skinny and they ached. "You'll have to carry me." She smiled up sweetly at Jon, hoping that he would give her a piggyback.

"I'll carry you if you don't hold on too tight, I nearly choked last time." He replied as he crouched down for her.

She smiled at him before climbing up onto his back, wrapping her skinny arms loosely around his neck.

Jon groaned as he stood, much to Robb's amusement "You getting heavy little sister, I think you must be growing." Jon said as he started walking again.

"Really? Do you think so? Maybe I grew a little?" She smiled happily, hoping that she would grow even more.

Eventually they made it to the river and Arya hopped off Jon's back to look around. Robb and Jon started to set up the fishing gear as she threw flat stones into the river. She was hoping to make them skip like her father had shown her, but they mostly went straight into the water.

"You're going to scare off all of the fish." Jon told her as he took her hand and led her away from the riverbank to sit down and watch as they finished setting up the fishing gear.

They didn't have enough gear for Arya to fish on her own, but Jon let her have a go of his for a little while. She didn't catch anything though and soon got bored. "I'm going to look for rubies." She told her brothers "Fishing is boring!"

"Stay where we can see you." Robb told her.

"If you wander off you can't come next time." Jon added.

"And _try_ to stay clean or mother will have all our hides!" Robb said, more in hope than anything.

Arya smiled and nodded. "I will, I promise." She turned and walked away from them, but stayed in sight as promised. She knelt by the edge of the river and started to poke around in the rocks and mud as she searched for rubies.

Arya searched for the rest of the afternoon but didn't find any rubies or anything valuable but did find a smooth stripey rock which she kept. "Maybe it's a lucky rock?" Robb told her as he gave her a piggback ride on their way back to Winterfell. Arya smiled happily, pleased with her new treasure.


End file.
